


not even quintessence can keep us apart

by reagab_des



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Developing Relationship, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gay Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Has Self-Esteem Issues, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, Supportive Keith (Voltron), hopefully, i love them, klance is cannon king, quintessence field, yall know that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-06 07:53:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15881769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reagab_des/pseuds/reagab_des
Summary: The Paladins of Voltron want nothing more than to go back home after their fight in the quintessence field and return home to Earth. But when their lions malfunction and they're stuck there for longer than they bargained for, they must figure out a way to stay alive, and warn Earth before Lotor attacks their beloved home.An AU where Lotor escapes, and Klance is CannonKing :)))





	1. uno

“See if you can dodge this!!” Pidge exclaimed, throwing her thrusters to full force as the head of her lion flew off Voltron’s arm and attacked Lotor’s version of “Voltron”. Lotor frantically dodged the head, losing his balance in the quintessence field.  
“You want some more?!” Lance shouted, shooting a laser out of the red lion’s arm that pierced Lotor right through the middle. Lotor grunted at the impact and barely managed to get out of the way before it caused too much damage.  
All of the paladins were high on the energy the quintessence field provided them, giving them the upper hand over Lotor.  
Allura panted and started to go in for another attack, but hesitated. Perhaps they were getting too much energy. She knew something felt wrong about this, even though she could feel the energy coursing through her veins and pumping through her lion. She looked around, shielding her eyes from the brightness surrounding her and the others.  
Outside of her visor, she could see Lotor inside his creation. He wasn’t looking too hot. He looked crazed, almost like a madman. The quintessence field was having an effect on him. He looked like… like Zarkon. Wait a tick…  
Over the comm she could hear them all yelling like bloodthirsty pirates. They were all out for blood… Lotor’s blood. She was too, or so she thought.  
After having her heart ripped apart by the person she thought she could trust and even love (someday), she knew she could never trust anyone outside of the paladins again. But… why did she feel like doing this was wrong?  
“Guys… we have to get out of here!” Allura yelled over the comm. Everyone groaned or yelled at her for making such a terrible suggestion, but before she could explain herself, Lotor attacked again.  
Lance grunted as he gave everything he had and thrust Voltron’s blade into Lotor’s creature, impaling him right through the chest and rendering him defenseless. He was stuck, and definitely wasn’t going anywhere.  
Lotor screamed and thrashed as he tried to escape, but it was hopeless. Even with all the energy in the quintessence field powering his thrusters, the small barbs on Voltron’s blade kept him from pulling himself off of the blade, until Voltron decided to let him go.  
“Just listen to me,” Allura yelled over the comm, “this energy is going to overload Voltron’s system! We won’t be able to get back out if we don’t let Lotor go and leave immediately!”  
“If we let him go, he’ll get away!” Lance said, pushing the blade farther into Lotor to prove his point. “And who knows what he’ll manage to do by the time we find him again… we can’t risk it.”  
“I’m with Lance,” Keith interjected. “What does the rest of the team think?”  
“According to these readings,” Pidge said, “we won’t be able to get out of the quintessence field for a long while if we – oh QUIZNACK!” Pidge was interrupted as Lotor managed to grab his own sword and strike the side of the green lion’s armor, knocking Pidge out of her chair.  
As she jumped up and landed back in her chair, Lance pulled back the blade and upon releasing Lotor, he attacked him with a renewed vigor. Nobody messes with his team and gets away with it!  
“Everyone! We have to leave! Voltron can’t handle this much energy for much longer!” Pidge exclaimed. Allura tried to voice her agreement, but they were in the middle of trying not to die, so it was a little hard.  
“You guys, I’m not feeling too good.” Hunk said.  
“Oh lord, are you gonna throw up again? Hunk you know I can’t keep cleaning up your bile, ESPECIALLY not at a time like this!” Lance yelled, irritated.  
“W-wait, I feel it too…” Pidge said, and the other paladins agreed. “ All this energy is overloading our systems! I think Voltron is about to have some bigger problems than Lotor!”  
But, right before there eyes, Lotor just… exploded. He was going in for another attack, before the lights on his machine’s chest started flickering and just… boom.  
Allura couldn’t say she wasn’t surprised. He never did know when to quit. Her heart ached.  
But then, Voltron started flickering too. And then it powered off completely.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the team tries to figure out what happened to their lions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well a good old fashioned diet coke will get my creativity up and running especially at 2:00 a.m.! Oh, and for reference:  
> quintant: a time slice comparable to a "day"; it is 20 vargas, or approximately 1.167 days (28 hours)  
> movement: a time slice comparable to a week.

Keith looked at his dead console, disbelief in his eyes. How could this happen? One minute, he’s feeling unstoppable and ready to keep fighting, and the next… its like Voltron just died.  
Voltron had disbanded automatically, so he was just the black lion again. He looks out of his windshield, shielding his eyes from the bright white light invading his irises. The other lions appeared to be dead as well. Lotor was nowhere to be seen.  
“Is everyone okay?” he says into the comm.  
Everyone voiced their surprise and assured each other that they were okay.  
“Let’s keep an eye out for Lotor, he might have survived the blast,” Allura said, a hint of fear in her voice. Everyone knew he was still dangerous, even without his fighter, especially when they were stuck like this.  
“Red here isn’t responding,” Lance said, panicked, “I can’t sense him inside of me either. It’s like I’m sitting inside of a dead body!”  
“It’s okay Lance, just give them a second. The lions always come back.” Allura assured him.  
Keith felt a pang of jealousy. He was their leader, he should be comforting Lance. He should be the one to hold him and stroke his hair, telling him it’ll all be alright…  
Wait.  
Keith shook his head and scolded himself. Leaders don’t do that. After all, look at what happened to Allura and Lotor… not that he and Lance were ever even considered a couple.  
“Pidge, can you run diagnostics on the lions? We need to figure out when they’ll come back to us,” Keith said.  
“Sure thing. I don’t think they’ll be coming around anytime soon, but we’ll have to wait and see how long it’ll take them to repair themselves. I think their systems are shot to the core. It’ll be at least a few quintants…” Pidge continued mumbling to herself as she tried to figure out what was going on with their lions.  
Keith looked around again at the other lions. They were floating together in a circle, slowly drifting away into oblivion. He could still feel the effects of the quintessence, but it felt more like a trickle in his blood, rather than a torrent.  
“Everyone, make sure you keep yourself in check. Don’t let the quintessence take over your body. We don’t want to end up like the original paladins,” Keith said. He was worried about the others, especially Lance. He didn’t want him getting corrupted.  
“Yeah, uh, how exactly do we do that?” Allura questioned.  
“Self-discipline. Try to block it out. Don’t let it come into your body.” Keith responded seriously.  
“That’s what she said!!” Lance snickered. Keith could hear Hunk snort. Keith rolled his eyes, a smile on his lips.  
Bunch of idiots.  
“Well… I guess now we wait,” Hunk mused. He promptly got comfy in his chair and started to help Pidge figure out their situation. They were quite the power team, Keith thought.  
If only he had something like that.  
“I’ll get to work on contacting Coran, who knows how long we’ll be stuck here.” Allura said.  
Keith thanked her and opened a private comm with Lance.  
“Wow you miss me already?” Lance said, raising his eyebrows suggestively. He and Keith had gotten closer ever since Keith got back from his mission to the quantum abyss. Lance didn’t know he could miss that mullet so much.  
“As if!” Keith said hotly, “everyone else was busy, and I’m bored.”  
“Oh, I’m sure that was the case.” Lance rolled his eyes. “Do ya think you could get your magic wolf here? I need something to come and distract me from this… situation.”  
“First off, he isn’t MY magic wolf. He’s a friend.” Keith glared at Lance as he rolled his eyes. “And second off, I’d never give him to a klutz like you anyways.”  
Lance feigned shock as he voiced his disagreement.  
“Guys,” Pidge interrupted, “Hunk and I have some good and bad news.”  
“The good news is that we can get out of the field!” Hunk exclaimed.  
“The bad new is… it’s gonna take at least a movement for the lions to become healthy enough to make the voyage.” Pidge finished. “Their internal energy controllers were completely overstimulated, to the point where they were burned out. Hunk and I will need to replace them and based on how complicated their internal wirings are… it’ll take a while.”  
“So point is, we’re stuck here. For a full week?!” Lance said, panicked.  
“Yup.”  
"Shiiiiiiiit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, next chapter will be up hopefully by next week. I know I said the same for this chapter, but THIS WAS DIFFERENT! please leave kudos or comments, as I am still an attention seeking whore :)


	3. Thri

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> self depreciating Lance and Keith not-so-obviously crushing on him :):):)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, sorry, I know I said I'd have this chapter out by the weekend, but I had a Saturday rehearsal for marching band and I didn't get a chance to do it :/// BUT I have it here now!

Lance groaned and threw himself back into his chair. He couldn’t stand being stuck doing nothing, especially not in a space as small as the red lion.  
“What can we do until the lions are back up and running?” Keith asked.  
“Consider yourselves to be in the 1950’s again,” Hunk said, “nothing to do, terrible food, and the feeling of impending doom. Only this isn’t a ‘oh no, the Cold War, we might be blown up’ kind of impending doom, more like a ‘We’re all gonna go crazy like Zarkon from too much quintessence exposure,’ impending doom.” He went back to helping Pidge after this terrifying statement.  
“….huh.” Lance said. “Well, lets play some road trip games!” He smiled.  
Everyone groaned. Lance knew they all hated his road trip games, even though they did help pass the time when they had to cross the galaxy to get to a mission.  
“Lance,” growled Allura, “I swear to the ancients if you make us play I Spy here… I will personally kick you out of your lion.”  
“What do you mean?? I think that’s a great game to play. Here: I spy with my little eye something…. white.”  
“The quintessence field!!” They all yelled in mock annoyance.  
“Bingo! Wow you guys are so good at this!” He said sarcastically.  
Lance swore he heard Keith chuckle a little bit. Keith almost always rolled his eyes or snorted when he cracked a good joke. But… why did that time make him feel all flustered?  
Lance tried to keep the team entertained for a few hours as Pidge and Hunk tried to work out the best way to fix their lions.  
“Okay,” Pidge finally said, “I’ve figured out the fastest way to fix all of our lions,”  
Everyone cheered.  
“…but you’re not going to like it. I must manually enter each of their system and repair the fried wires. Unfortunately, the broken pieces I have to fix are on the outside of each of your lions. That means I’ll have to go out into the quintessence field to fix them.”  
Lance blanched as he realized what this meant. Even though the paladins of old had all gone out into this alternate reality, only Zarkon had been affected so harshly. He was the only one who went outside of his lion and into the quintessence field to “heal” Honerva. All the others stayed inside their lions. If Pidge went out there…  
“Pidge, you can’t do that! You’ll go mad from too much quintessence!” Allura yelled. “That’s not an option. You’ll have to--“  
“I’m sorry but there’s no other way. All of our lions are dead, so I can’t do it from inside of Green. It’s not like I can send out a probe to fix it, since we don’t have the castle with us. Plus if we wait any longer, we’ll ALL go mad.”  
Lance frowned. He knew what he had to do. Lace mulled it over in his head. Everyone knew Pidge was the smartest paladin they had, Hunk was a close second. If they lost her, the team would fall apart. But Lance realized that he was… replaceable.  
What a good realization to have, he sarcastically thought.  
“Pidge… let me do it,” he said quietly.  
“What? No way! Definitely not you.” Keith exclaimed. “I-I mean, NOBODY is going out into the open. We have to find another way.” Lance was shocked (and touched) at how adamant Keith was about this fact.  
“There simply isn’t another way to do this! And no way Lance, we aren’t letting you go out there. You wouldn’t even know what you were doing!” Pidge said.  
“That’s why you would give the steps to me over the comm. Put simply, I-I’m… replaceable.” Lance stuttered.  
Everyone yelled their disagreement.   
“No, no, wait, let me explain myself!” Lance yelled over them. They quieted down. “Pidge, you know you can’t go out there. You’re the smartest person on our team. If we lost you, Voltron would fall apart. If I left, the team would survive. Keith, you would take back Red, and Shiro would have the black lion again.”  
And you’d be your own happy little Voltron family again, Lance thought bitterly.  
“I mean, he has a point,” Hunk admitted, “but still… what would we do without you, Lance?”  
Celebrate, probably, Lance thought. “Just keep on keeping on, right?” He smiled weakly.  
The team fell silent as they thought about what was to happen. None of them wanted Pidge or Lance to go out into the quintessence field, but it didn’t seem like there was any way around it.  
Allura sighed. “We’re gonna have to decide soon, I’m not sure how much longer we can survive here without repercussions… personally I think it should be Lance. We don’t even know if the quintessence will affect a human in the same was as a galran, so he might not even be affected!”  
“Let’s hope not. I’m with Allura,” Hunk said. Pidge sighed, but finally agreed.  
“Fine.” Keith said, defeated. “We’ll send you out in an hour, okay Lance? Better spill all the secrets you’ve been keeping from us in that time, just in case you…you…” Keith fell silent as he forced back a sob.  
Weirdly, Lance felt at peace. Like as if this was… supposed… to happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOf that was gross sorry it wasn't the best thing I've ever written. hopefully the next chapter will be out next weekend, but no promises. Thank you for leaving kudos and/or comments, they make me feel validated :^))

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Send me comments or just leave a kudo, I appreciate anything and everything. love ya'll!


End file.
